


Let's Talk About Love

by nightberrypearl



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, minor angst with a happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-05 00:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20480288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightberrypearl/pseuds/nightberrypearl
Summary: Even if everything changesYou’re the only one I wantIn my everyday schedule...





	Let's Talk About Love

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short little thing because 2hyun in a royalty AU is too much for me to be able to resist right now :))) Fersen isn't a prince but damn... Minhyun's musical is bad for my heart

Jonghyun almost wants to laugh at how ridiculous it is that Minhyun could even begin to think that he was being subtle. When you’re walking down the empty halls of the palace so late in the evening, it’s hard not to hear the other set of footsteps that have been echoing off the stone walls for the past five minutes.

Jonghyun sighs as he takes a right turn and heads through a passage known only to him and a few other trusted employees of the palace that leads straight from the servants quarters up to the prince’s private wing. He swiftly makes his way through the passage and stops at the door to the prince’s private quarters. Not even bothering to knock, he opens the door. He knows that no one is inside anyway.

"After you, your highness." Jonghyun calls down the seemingly empty corridor.

There’s a moment of silence before Jonghyun hears a soft sigh coming from the exit of the passage. He sees a small tuft of light brown hair poke out from behind the wall before Minhyun finally emerges, complete with his head hung low and a childish pout on his lips. It would be clear to anyone that the prince is in fact sulking as he shuffles past Jonghyun and into his room like a scolded child.

Jonghyun almost allows a small smile onto his face at the prince’s adorable sulking before he stops himself. He’s been getting pretty good at that lately — controlling himself around the prince, that is.

He follows after the prince and closes the door behind him. When he turns around, the pout is still on Minhyun’s lips, but now he stares straight at Jonghyun. Jonghyun bows his head in deference.

"Jonghyun-ah." The prince calls out softly.

"Yes, your highness?" Jonghyun replies in kind. He hears Minhyun sigh again.

"It’s just us here. I think you can afford to drop the formalities even just a little to stretch to calling me by my name." 

Jonghyun can hear the fatigue in Minhyun’s tone. He hopes that Minhyun hasn’t been overworking himself again. 

"It wouldn’t be proper, your highness." Jonghyun tells him.

"You never had a problem with it before.” 

“I wasn’t your servant before.”

Minhyun remains silent before he turns away and runs a hand through his hair.  _ ‘It’s a sign of frustration’ _ Jonghyun’s brain supplies, the part of his brain that keeps track of these kinds of things. 

When Minhyun turns back to him and begins walking forwards, Jonghyun wants to back away but the handle of the door behind him is already digging into his spine. 

“So you’re appointed to be my servant and suddenly we’re nothing to each other anymore? Is that it? Aren’t we even at least friends?” Minhyun asks with hurt evident in the way he looks at Jonghyun with furrowed brows. 

Jonghyun doesn’t have a response. How he wishes that he could just take Minhyun’s shaking hands in his own and assure him that, of course, they were still friends, but the reality of it was that it just wasn’t that simple anymore. 

“Do you know why I tried to follow you to your quarters?” Minhyun continues to ask when it’s clear that Jonghyun isn’t going to respond to his previous questions.

Jonghyun has a good idea of why but instead he shakes his head.

“No.”

All of a sudden he feels a hand under his chin, startling him as his head is guided up until he’s meeting Minhyun’s gaze. Jonghyun gulps and swallows drily when he sees how close Minhyun has gotten.

“Because I’ve missed you.” 

Jonghyun’s eyes widen as his breath hitches at the confession. 

“And it seems ridiculous doesn’t it?” Minhyun says rhetorically, “I see you everyday and yet… Every waking moment I feel this tightness right here.”

Minhyun reaches for Jonghyun’s hand which had been hanging uselessly by his side and presses it against his chest. Jonghyun feels Minhyun’s heart steadily beating beneath his palm and it quickens in time with his own as they continue to stare at one another. They shouldn’t be doing this, Jonghyun knows, but he can’t bring himself to pull away. 

“Can’t we just go back to how things were before?” Minhyun almost whispers into the meagre space between them.

There’s nothing Jonghyun would like to do more than say ‘yes’. There’s nothing he would like more than for them to stop being a prince and his servant and to go back to when they were just Minhyun and Jonghyun — two boys who grew up with just each other for company in a palace full of grown ups that didn’t have enough time for either of them. 

Jonghyun wishes it was possible to go back to that time when Minhyun could visit him in his quarters after a long day of learning about his royal duties without being met with judging eyes and not so subtle mutterings about witchcraft he didn’t perform and blackmail he didn’t commit. He’s spent his fair share of nights praying to anyone who might listen, asking to turn back the clock to the time when Minhyun’s heart could reach for Jonghyun and Jonghyun’s own heart could reach out to meet him halfway without worry. 

“It’s not that simple…” Jonghyun says, voicing out the words that he tells himself every morning when he wakes up with an empty feeling in his chest after a dream of his very own prince charming coming to give him his own fairy tale ending. “You’re the prince—” 

“I’ve always been the prince,” Minhyun scoffs, “So I don’t see why things have to change just because you were appointed as my servant.” He continues to argue back.

“Because I’m your  _ servant _ .”

“So we’ve established.” Minhyun comments drily with a roll of his eyes. 

He pulls away from Jonghyun to run his hand through his hair once more. The action leaves a few stray strands of hair sticking up at the sides and Jonghyun barely has time to think about what he’s doing before he’s stepping forwards and reaching up to fix Minhyun’s hair. 

He drops his hand awkwardly when he realises what he’s done, but Minhyun takes it back in his own before it can return to his side. Minhyun cradles his hand between two of his own before bending down to press his lips against Jonghyun’s knuckles. 

Jonghyun blushes involuntarily and wants to snatch his hand away and make a run for it before Minhyun can do anything more, but the grip on his hand is tight. 

“I don’t care if you’re my servant.” Minhyun begins, still not letting go of Jonghyun’s hand. “I wouldn’t care if you were a pauper off the street. I just care that you’re still the same boy that I grew up with.”

Jonghyun feels himself being swayed as Minhyun looks at him with earnest eyes. He stares down at where Minhyun’s hands encompass his own and he wants to reach forward with his other hand to intertwine their fingers together until Minhyun no longer feels the need to grip onto him like he’s about to disappear in a billow of smoke. He envies how carefree Minhyun can be, as if long established social hierarchies are of no consequence to him. 

“No one has ever cared about your status, Jonghyun-ah.” Minhyun assures him, seemingly reading Jonghyun’s mind. “No one who matters anyway. My parents certainly never did.”

Jonghyun looks up him in surprise.

“Don’t you think that if they did, they would have said something years ago?”

“‘Years...ago…’?” Jonghyun repeats, not quite on the same page anymore.

Minhyun laughs lightly and ducks his head shyly for a moment. 

“Anyone who had ever come across the two of us together, if they had eyes, could see exactly how far my affections for you stretched.” 

Jonghyun tries to process his words, tries to somehow make it make sense in his head but he couldn’t see how this new information fit with anything that he knew about people’s expectations for a Crown Prince.

“In fact, I'm pretty sure they all think I did something to upset you and haven’t apologised for it yet.” Minhyun continues, looking vaguely amused. 

“They— What?” 

Minhyun laughs again at the pure confusion painted on Jonghyun’s face.

“They keep dropping hints and pulling me aside to talk about the importance of apologising and forgiveness.” Minhyun explains with a chuckle.

Jonghyun splutters, unsure of what to say or do with this information.

“So you see Jonghyun-ah,” Minhyun begins in a softer tone, “You don’t have anything to worry about.” 

Minhyun presses another kiss to Jonghyun’s hand. 

“Let those other people talk if they want. They don’t matter.” Minhyun adds, just as softly.

Jonghyun stares into Minhyun’s pleading eyes, and for the first time in weeks, he lets himself  _ feel _ . He unlocks the shackles and breaks open the cage that housed his beaten down heart and lets it swell as he feels Minhyun’s thumb softly stroking over his fingers. 

As if Minhyun can sense the fight and tension bleed out of Jonghyun’s body, he wastes no time before pulling him forwards into his chest. He tucks Jonghyun’s head into his shoulder with one hand on the back of his head, stroking his hair, and the other wraps around his waist, keeping him in place.

Jonghyun closes his eyes and melts into Minhyun’s warmth as he winds his arms around Minhyun’s back.

“Can I tell my parents to stop with the interventions now?” Minhyun half jokes, making Jonghyun giggle lightly into the crook of his neck.

“Yes, you can.” He mutters, just loud enough for Minhyun to hear. 

Jonghyun turns his head slightly to the side, just enough that he can press his lips to the side of Minhyun’s neck.

“And I’ve missed you too, Minhyunnie. So much.”

**Author's Note:**

> It was high time I returned somewhat to my angsty roots :)))
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are very welcome, and you can also come find me in the usual places:
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nightberrypearl)   
[Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.me/nightberrypearl)


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